Grace and Justin send each other letters. Producers: Cathy Wong and Kate Nelson Featuring: Justin Hsuan and Grace Music: "When in the West," "Sage the Hunter," and "Drone Pine" by Blue Dot Sessions
Immigrating is a conversation that happens across borders, generations, and versions of oneself. Grace and Justin talk across political differences. Unknown workers who forged the Transcontinental Railroad receive a new voice. Solmaz writes poetry to orient herself in the world. And Frankie and Francisco reflect on growing up in a new place. This is part two of a two-part series. Host: Cathy Wong Producers: Carissa Cirelli, Noelle Chow, Jett Hayward, An-Li Herring, Julia Ing...
On January 27, 2017, the first travel ban takes effect. And then Nisrin lands at JFK. Producers: Helvia Taina, An-Li Herring, Eileen Williams, and Rosie La Puma Featuring: Nisrin Elamin Abdelrahman Music: "80's Interlude" by Fanas; "Theme 4," "Sleep," "Intermission," "In a Dream," and "data" by johnny_ripper
Maddie searches for the formula to be an American. Producers: Kate Nelson, Carissa Cirelli, and Jackson Roach Featuring: Madeleine Han Music: "Fater Lee" and "James p . funk 2" by Black Ant, "No sudden movements" by Rui, "i'm not here" by johnny_ripper, "dan1 " by junior85
Oscar gets deported. He’s determined to come back, no matter what. Producers: Kate Nelson, Carissa Cirelli, and Jackson Roach Featuring: Oscar Music: "Delican't" by Podington Bear, "Door knock" by [email protected]
We hear a lot about immigrants. In this episode, we hear from immigrants – not as statistics, but as individual human beings crossing borders. Oscar gets deported and tries to return home. Maddie comes to terms with her family relationships. And Nisrin enters the U.S. from Sudan after the first travel ban takes effect. In this episode, stories of crossing. This is part one of a two part series. Host: Noelle Chow Producers: Carissa Cirelli, Noelle Chow, Jett Hayward, An-Li Herrin...
Immigrating is a conversation that happens across borders, generations, and versions of oneself. Grace and Justin talk across political differences. Unknown workers who forged the Transcontinental Railroad receive a new voice. Solmaz writes poetry to orient herself in the world. And Frankie and Francisco reflect on growing up in a new place. This is part two of a two-part series. Host: Cathy Wong Producers: Carissa Cirelli, Noelle Chow, Jett Hayward, An-Li Herring, Julia Ing...
Sometimes, marching steadily through the steps of life—we crash right into something entirely unexpected. In one instant, the entire world changes, without even a word of warning. When a crash comes, that collision can destroy everything. But it can wake us up to what we truly need; we must decide what to raze and what to rebuild. How do humans move forward before the smoke is cleared? What happens after the crash? Host: Eileen Williams Producers: Eileen Williams, Claudia Heymach, Jackson Roach,...
In an instant, everything can change. When Dan and Danno got in a car crash in their sophomore year at Stanford, everything did. Now they’re both back at Stanford as professors and recount the event that shook and shaped their lives (and even inspired a Lifetime Movie). Their perspective is one you might not expect in light of the tragedy that unhinged their world. Dan says today, “That’s a great approach to life—to assume that there’s something lucky to every unlucky thing that happens.” Produc...
Dr. David Radler is a senior resident in the department of emergency medicine at Stanford University. He tells us about one particularly memorable crash, and what it taught him. Producer: Eileen Williams Featuring: Dr. David Radler Music: Kai Engel
Miles accidentally crashed the Stanford server, but as an earth scientist there’s a lot more at risk. Myth and science have been separated in the real world, but in fantasy and fiction they dance together to tell stories. Producer: Eileen Williams Featuring: Miles Traer Music: Soundtrack to “Game of Thrones”
Dr. Michael Peskin works in the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, home of the world’s longest linear accelerator. At SLAC, researchers crash X rays and particles, and a huge variety of things together, but not for destruction or for fun-- but for learning. Producer: Claudia Heymach Featuring: Michael Peskin Music: Original viola by Rosie LaPuma
Ants navigate to and from food using pheromone trails; the stronger the pheromone trail, the more ants following it, like some kind of highway map. Humans use similar mapping strategies as we navigate through life, but how do we know that the paths we’re on will lead us to where we want to be? Today’s show is about navigating, with four stories and a poem about various ways that humans are moving through the world, with unique answers to these questions: How do we navigate through life without a...
"May I please have a manual for life?" Louis Lafair reads an original poem. Producer: Alec Glassford Featuring: Louis Lafair Image via Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/30976576@N07/4113330094
When she was 25, Jennifer Johnson sailed out of a Japanese harbor on a 27-foot boat with sights set on Hawaii. Sit in the cockpit with her as she charts her way through storms, fish colonies, and nearly capsized boats with only her partner for company, and re-experience the newness and stillness of land. “Adventure? Oh, I don’t know, adventure has too many positive connotations to say it was an adventure.” Featuring: Chris Leboa, Deborah Gordon, Julie Sweetkind-Singer, Glen McLaughlin, Saptarshi...
Live the life of a savage adventurer. It’s a motto that Saptarshi Majumdar lives by as he travels across the globe, whether it’s from one continent to another or one coast to another. Sap’s journeys are wild and crazy, and the stories that he picks up even crazier. Why not sit back and enjoy the ride? Producers: Aparna Verma and Jenny Han Featuring: Saptarshi Majumdar and Aparna Verma Music: "Hex (Instrumental)" by Forget the Whale, "We'll Get Ourselves in TV-News" by Break the Bans...
“Once you decide something, you kinda have to destroy everything else right? Your other options? You gotta let em go.” We spend an entire day at the Oakland Greyhound station and ask people where they are going. Mark Mendoza chases a cameraman. Cathy Wong learns when not to own a skeleton key. Hollie Kool talks to a Japanese pizza lover. Mimes are involved. Producers: Will Rogers, Alec Glassford, Rosie La Puma, Yue Li, Cathy Wong, Virginia Drummond, Katie Wolfteich, Aparna Verma, Jenny Han, An-L...
When the Spanish explorers set out to discover the Americas, they came to find wealth and a new start. In this story, we hear about how the Spanish explorers navigated through these unfamiliar territory and how a myth turned into a reality that passed around for centuries. Producers: Yue Li, Virginia Drummond Featuring: Glen McLaughlin, Julie Sweetkind-Singer Special thanks: G. Salim Mohammed, of the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford Music and sound: Original music by Latifah Hamzah, "Rain Sto...
Breath and spirit have been closely related in human thought—for millennia. In a lot of human languages, we use the same word to mean both things. Yet it’s easy to take breathing for granted, in spite of the fact it is maybe the most common human experience. In this episode, we’re going to think about every inhale and every exhale, and speak to people who have to think about breathing in a lot of interesting ways: a biathlete, a beatboxer, a dancer. We’ll dive deep underwater to a dark and dange...
Doctor Paul Fisher reflects on the role that breathing plays in the perception what constitutes life and death. Producers: Jett Hayward, Kate Nelson, and Jenny March Featuring: Paul Fisher Music: "Stay" by Igor Khabarov, "Three kites circling" by Axletree, "Dead Waters" by Rest You Sleeping Giant, "Harbor" by Kai Engel, "Stanford Doctor to Examine Jahi McMath" by KRON 4, "Hospital Ventilator Sound Effect | Sfx |HD" by n Beats Sound Effects
What if breathing could be used as a collective tool of resistance? Citizens in China show us just how they used qi gong, a healing form of breathing to empower themselves during an era of uncertainty. Writers: Katie Lan and Jenny March Producers: Katie Lan, Jenny March, Jake Warga, and Jackson Roach Featuring: Nancy Chen
Andrew Todhunter, a writer for National Geographic, explores the underwater cave of Stargate in the Bahamas. It’s dark, dangerous, and “as alien as any possible science fiction world.” But while exploring the perilous surroundings around him, Todhunter reveals a surprising truth—one that comes from within. Music and sound: "Oceans Between Us" by Maritime, "Falling" by Kamikaze Deadboy, "waiting (in the wet alley" by lost-radio, "Moon Morning" by Aymeric de Tapol, "A Million Worlds" by Andrew Odd...
This is a recorded performance about breath, exhaustion, and struggle, written by a choreographer named Tom Johnson in the 1970s. With reflections from Dr. Janice Ross, professor of dance. “The body is a leaky, messy medium for art making.”
Could you transition from the flurry of a race to the calm of absolute still in a few seconds? In biathlon, a sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship, this skill is a must. After much trial and tribulation and many failed shots, Joanne Reid, biathlete of the U.S national team, learned that it’s all about the breath. Be warned, this story is not for the faint of lungs. Music and Sound: "Epiphany" by Podington Bear, “Women 15 km Individual Race 2017 Biathlon IBU World Champ...
Brad Ross started his beatboxing career as a senior in high school, “as kind of a joke.” Now you can spot Brad dropping a beat in the acapella group, Stanford Mixed Company, or just ask him for a demo like we did. Brad shares how he learned how to harness the rhythm behind the rhythm—the rhythm of the breath—and what he’s discovered from “using [his] lungs to make art.” Music: Brad’s sick beats
In this episode, we explore inheritances’ many forms and unexpected outcomes. “You’ll hear the forgotten tales of hand-me down clothing, stories of family exploits that keep ancestors alive, how your genetic inheritance can define you...for better and for worse, and how even our values can get passed down from one generation to the next.” Host: Rosie La Puma Producers: Rosie La Puma, Luke Soon-Shiong, Hadley Reid, Jake Warga, Claudia Heymach, Christy Hartman, Annina Hanlon, Benjamin Philip Sulit...
Non-narrated story of three Stanford students who share something in common: they lost their fathers. “You can be angry about death for a very long time but it’s not really worth. I think death just makes you look at life in the face. Even when he was sick, he was still very much trying to live his life …” Producer: Benjamin Philip Suliteanu Featuring: Amalia Saladrigas, McGregor Joyner, Emma Rothenberg Music: Original scoring by McGregor Joyner
Live from StoryNight 2015, Devon Cajuste tells the story of how his father told him that he has five years left to live. “You don’t know what to do when you’re thirteen years old and your dad tells you that he has five years left to live … and I count and that’s my freshman year of college.” Producer: Rosie La Puma Featuring: Devon Cajuste
A Stanford Lab develops gene editing tools to fight disease, and in the process challenges whether our destiny is predetermined by DNA. Producers: Claudia Heymach with help from Annina Hanlon and Rosie La Puma Featuring: Claudia Heymach and Matthew Porteus Music: Dark Waters by Podington Bear
A young woman comes to terms with a potentially lethal condition that runs in her family. “‘Is he okay, is he going to be okay, is the surgery going okay?’ Maybe they were just tired of the same sentence, rearranged. We want to know, is he going to be …” Writer: Sierra Freeman Producers: Claudia Heymach, Christy Hartman, and Rosie La Puma Featuring: Sierra Freeman Music: Jackson Roach on mandolin
